Talks by Iran 1400 Project
Iran 1400 Project, 2024
On March 30, 2023, The Iran 1400 Project’s program manager Sydney Martin interviewed Dr. Behnam M... more On March 30, 2023, The Iran 1400 Project’s program manager Sydney Martin interviewed Dr. Behnam M. Fomeshi, a Literary Researcher at Monash University, about poet Parvin E’tesami. Dr. Fomeshi examined E’tesami’s life, influences, notable poets preceding her, and her lasting impact on Persian poetry.
https://iran1400.org/content/parvin-etesamis-feminism-and-legacy-in-persian-poetry/
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
Here, we have a fascinating and engaging transcript of an interview with Mr. Kambiz Mahmoudi, the... more Here, we have a fascinating and engaging transcript of an interview with Mr. Kambiz Mahmoudi, the managing director of the first private television and his last position was the deputy general director of Network TV. Mahmoudi’s direct and personal experience in managing Iran’s first commercial and first governmental television, since their inception, opens a vignette to the story of television in Iran. The challenge of creating an entirely new mass media outlet in Iran, and indeed in the entire Middle East, is itself captivating. However, Mahmoudi goes beyond the technical and financial challenges. He speaks of political intrigue, censorship and even scientific polling and data analysis. Through the watchful eyes of Mahmoudi, we see the story of television as more than just a new source for entertainment and news in Iran; we see it as a marketing tool, as a business venture, as an institution of power and even as a threat to religion and religious establishments. The story of television in Iran is perhaps the most vivid example of tradition encountering modernity both culturally in the country and personally at people’ homes. Mahmoudi’s interview is an oral history and non-fictional storytelling at its best. It is candid, honest and descriptive.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
Ramin Jahanbegloo provides an insightful assessment of Iran’s encounter with modernity during the... more Ramin Jahanbegloo provides an insightful assessment of Iran’s encounter with modernity during the past 100 years in an interview with the Iran 1400 Project. Jahanbegloo while making a clear distinction between “modernity” and “modernization,” looks at Iran’s societal reaction to the forces of modernity through a critical and contextual lens. What were the distinctive characteristics of Modernity and the Enlightenment in the West? When and how Iran became fascinated with modernity? What were the intellectual sources within the country responding to Iran’s attempt to emulate the West? What were the counter movements responding to the demands of both modernity and modernization? What are the challenges of the current generation of Iranians in a globalized world? And what are the prospects for a more modern Iran in the 1400s? Jahanbegloo’s answers to these questions are fascinating; however, the very questions he is posing and the approach he is taking in answering some of these age-old questions, offer a unique critical perspective on Iran’s response to modernity and modernization.
Iran 1400 Project, 2021
In this interview, Mehrangiz Kar takes a historical look at jurisprudence during four decisive pe... more In this interview, Mehrangiz Kar takes a historical look at jurisprudence during four decisive periods in the history of modern Iran. Starting with the Constitutional Movement, Kar charts the evolution of Iranian jurisprudence through the reigns of both Pahlavi monarchs, ending her account with an analysis of jurisprudence under the Islamic Republic. As a female jurist, Ms. Kar is especially attuned to discriminatory laws related to family law and women’s rights and she points out the periods of progress in this field during the last hundred years, as well as the times when such jurisprudence regressed. Indeed, Mehrangiz Kar maintains that the ascendency of sharia law since the Islamic Revolution has made it more difficult for Iran to achieve the rule of law demanded by the people during the Constitutional Movement. She contends that without major political restructuring, Sharia law will continue to dominate Iran’s jurisprudence, ensuring that the century-old demand for a modern legal regime will persist. Mehrangiz Kar reflects that Iranian civil society—especially the intellectuals--never truly appreciated the achievements of the second Pahlavi shah regarding women’s rights until those were discarded and redefined by the Islamic Republic. Some may not agree with all of Ms. Kar’s conclusions, but all will be challenged by her thoughtful and provocative analysis.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
During the past 100 years, Iran has been involved in a prolonged civil war according to Aram Hess... more During the past 100 years, Iran has been involved in a prolonged civil war according to Aram Hessami, a political theorist. This war is fought between the discourse of modernity on the hand and its opposing forces of the Religious-Islamist, the Nationalist-Nativist, and the Marxist-Leninist discourses on the other. He further argues that this war of discourses has had practical ramifications in the entire social, economic, and political structure of Iran’s past 150 years. Hessami claims that it is not the scientific-technological aspect of modernity that has motivated these opposing forces to continue fighting in this war; rather it is the claims of the Enlightenment within the social-human universe that is problematic for these three other discourses. The rationalism, the secularism, the humanism, the legalism, and the individualism of the Western Enlightenment Liberalism are the points of contention for the narratives of all three Islamist, nativists, and the Marxist discourses. Hessami argues that this civil war is turned into a war of attrition which will also define Iran’s next one hundred years.
Papers by Iran 1400 Project
Iran 1400 Project, 2023
This topic may sound somewhat unusual for the Iran 1400 project where our focus is mainly on the ... more This topic may sound somewhat unusual for the Iran 1400 project where our focus is mainly on the evolution of institutions and ideas during the past century in Iran. However, Anthony Shay in this article makes a solid case for both the importance of dance and the evolution of this mode of communication in understanding societal changes during the past 100 years. The physical control of the human body, on the one hand, and its movement in public places by regimes of power as well as the response of civil society to this exertion of power and control, on the other hand, reveal much about the inner workings of power dynamics in a given society. This article explores how the two regimes of power during the past 100 years in Iran have sponsored, promoted, and even prohibited certain dances, to forge a particular national identity for the people. Anthony Shay's research and scholarship in this article are quite evident, adding a unique window into the formation of Iranian society and culture during the past century.
Iran 1400 Project, 2023
In February of 1946, 6 years after Taghi Arani’s tragic death at the age of 37, over 15,000 peopl... more In February of 1946, 6 years after Taghi Arani’s tragic death at the age of 37, over 15,000 people attended a memorial service at his grave. Socialites and professors rubbed shoulders with members of factory syndicates and trade unions in the crowd. Over 28 different political organizations were represented at the service. Despite his short life, Arani shaped the Iranian Left. He pushed back against a repressive state, promoting the principles of cosmopolitanism and Marxist materialism, which were largely unfamiliar to the Iranian people. His impact was substantial enough to inspire the formation of the Tudeh Party, which garnered a significant following that endured for several decades. By engaging with Arani’s beliefs and the steps he took to actualize them, Iranians can gain insight into the past aspirations of the Iranian Left, providing inspiration and guidance for the modern Leftist movement.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
In this article, Shideh Rezaie traces back the first organization for managing public health in I... more In this article, Shideh Rezaie traces back the first organization for managing public health in Iran to 1904. Rezaei presents a well-documented history of institutions of public health along with the number of medical schools, hospitals, physicians and nurses in Iran. The formation of public health policy and the process through which these policies were implemented are presented here. Rezaei devotes a considerable portion of her research on the creation and the expansion of the public health networks and their missions throughout Iran's modern history. She, indeed, goes beyond mere history of these institutions and policies and provides a detailed explanation of specific procedures and processes combined with an astute evaluation of them.
Iran 1400, 2020
This article provides a historical tour of Iran’s theater during the past one hundred years. Both... more This article provides a historical tour of Iran’s theater during the past one hundred years. Both the religious and the patriotic themes which loom large in Iran’s popular and folk art are discussed in relation to Iran’s theater. The gravitation toward Western plays and particularly European theater, presented here, reveals another aspect of Iran’s encounter with modernity and the West. Additionally, the history of various forms of training institutions in the field of theater established in Iran is laid out in a chronological format. The influence of social and political events on Iran’s theatre and the directions it had taken is also an important part of the history of theater presented here. The problem of censorship with which Iran’s theater has been grappling is another important topic to which the author devotes several pages explaining the challenges posed for that industry. The author also devotes a large section of this article to introducing the most influential producers, directors, actors and actresses as well as their teachers and mentors of each era. The national and international festivals in which Iranian theatre was presented are also covered in this well-researched article.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
This is a great article that explores the women’s movement in Iran since the 19th Century. The pl... more This is a great article that explores the women’s movement in Iran since the 19th Century. The plight of women in the social-political arenas is discussed in a clear historical and sociological manner. Women’s struggle to gain equality in both the civil rights and the civil liberties’ battlegrounds is discussed with clarity and specificity. The divisions within the feminist movements and the particular issues of concerns for each have been clearly delineated. In addition, both the achievements and the challenges of women’s movements in Iran, to date, are covered in this article.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
Hoda Mahmoudi, the Baha’i Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland at College Park, pr... more Hoda Mahmoudi, the Baha’i Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland at College Park, presents a compelling case for the discriminatory and apartheid-like segregation of women living in theocratic Iran. Hoda Mahmoudi manages to address the legal and extra-legal discriminations, cultural and religious taboos, and educational and economic impediments with which the women of Iran are grappling every day, in a clear and concise manner. Combined with both current and historical testimonials, she evaluates some of the key actions, campaigns and movements led by the Iranian women, themselves. Being a woman and a member of a religious minority group, Mahmoudi offers the reader a unique vantage point from which they can feel the harsh realities of life for women in Iran.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
This article is a general report about various aspects of music in Iran since the founding of Ira... more This article is a general report about various aspects of music in Iran since the founding of Iran’s National Radio in 1938. It addresses the prevalent type of instruments used, the kind of music played, the numerous training schools established and the various performers who have shaped the music of Iran during the past 80 years. In telling this story, some of the social and cultural trends and tendencies that have made certain types or styles of music more popular in Iran are also discussed.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
The Transformation of Higher Education in Iran poses a basic question: Why an ancient civilizatio... more The Transformation of Higher Education in Iran poses a basic question: Why an ancient civilization, like Iran, with a long history of cultural affinity for learning and teaching institutions, was unable to create a system of higher education comparable to those in France or Great Britain? In an attempt to answer this question, the author explores over 100 years of learning institutions in Iran under the Ghaajar and Pahlavi Dynasties and under the Islamic Republic. Aside from a careful examination of the history of higher education in Iran, this article addresses the study abroad programs implemented throughout this period in Iran. Key figures including visionaries, statesmen and educators combined with their achievements and challenges are also presented here. There are several key statistics and graphs about the higher education applicants and the number of attendees that are also edifying. Overall, this article portrays a comprehensive picture of the state of higher education in Iran and the way it was transformed from the turn of the century around 1300.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
Going back to 1919 and the first constitution of Mashrooteh period, this article delivers a compr... more Going back to 1919 and the first constitution of Mashrooteh period, this article delivers a comprehensive report on the institution of the Attorney General in Iran. The author sees the modernization of the Department of Justice (the Prosecutor’s Office) as part of the larger project of reforming the entire Judiciary branch. From the selection of judges and revamping of their required qualifications to their specific duties and responsibilities under the law are covered here. The public perception of these reforms along with a long list of specific corrective measures is discussed as well. A considerable portion of this article is devoted to the reforms after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The changes in the judicial philosophy, the commitment to Islamic law (sharia), and the creation of new types of courts are some of the major changes, legitimized by the new constitution of the Islamic Republic, are all documented here. The history of the office of the Inspector General overseeing the Judiciary and the Attorney General’s office, dating back to 1928, is also a valuable part of this Article.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
This article explores the role of religion in the formation of social-political culture in Iran. ... more This article explores the role of religion in the formation of social-political culture in Iran. Additionally, the general public's attitude, as well as those of the intellectuals toward religion since the middle of the 20th century, is addressed here. In fact, this article goes back even before the stated date of 1941 in order to set the stage for these religious-intellectual developments. Accordingly, the anti-religious sentiments, opinions and movements are also covered in this article. The connection between peoples' religious beliefs and the ongoing social-political and cultural sensibilities is systematically addressed here. This is a well-researched work, probing into various schools of Shia and Islamic thoughts toward religion, society and politics. The political ramifications of these religious beliefs and attitudes are also thoroughly discussed along with the role of institutions, organizations and practices which were formed because of them. This article also sheds light on Iran's encounter with the West and modernity vis-à-vis religion and religiosity.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
This article provides a historical approach to the establishment of banks and banking practices i... more This article provides a historical approach to the establishment of banks and banking practices in Iran. The article is divided into two sections: the first part covers the years from 1941 to 1979 and the second part addresses the changes under the Islamic Republic from 1979 until the present time. The author outlines the evolution of banking and banking practices in Iran and ties it to the economic growth and socio-political development of the country. He argues that the growth in the oil industry and the politics associated with direct foreign investments played a major role in the growth of banking in Iran. The type of banks and the various banking products and practices are directly influenced by these economic and political considerations.
Iran 1400 Project, 2020
This article provides a concise survey of Iran’s foreign policy doctrines during the past 100 yea... more This article provides a concise survey of Iran’s foreign policy doctrines during the past 100 years. From foreign occupation to yearning for independence, from counterbalance of power during the Cold War to hyper Nationalism which followed it, from the “neither East, nor West” mentality to the “constructive interaction” narrative is all covered here in a chronological timeline. The effects of major wars, both regional and international, combined with the effects of key domestic movements on Iran’s foreign policy are also discussed here. The major themes of Isolationism, Idealism and Exceptionalism which run through Iran’s foreign policy are outlined here but with an eye on Iran’s geopolitical status and her role in the area of international political economy, particularly after the discovery of oil in Iran.
Iran 1400 Project, 2021
Iran's desire to modernize and join the developed nations in the beginning of the century implied... more Iran's desire to modernize and join the developed nations in the beginning of the century implied making choices: what model of development was preferable? That of the West, or the East? Or might a new, indigenous path to development be found? In this article, Rasool Nafisi takes a unique approach to illuminate the practical difficulties of becoming "independent." He eschews the usual macro-level analysis in favor of a case study of a local development project designed by Majid Rahnama, one of Iran's top experts on development. Nafisi shows us the challenges of development and independence. He examines the Selseleh Project in the province of Lorestan, which became a testing ground for various sociological schools of thought, and astutely deconstructs the ideological and theoretical debates among the Western, Eastern, and nativist perspectives, as well as Iran's quest for "independence" and a "third way." Nafisi concludes that the process of becoming "independent" is more complex than is generally assumed, requiring much more than choosing a Western, or Eastern, or even a native pattern to follow.
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Talks by Iran 1400 Project
https://iran1400.org/content/parvin-etesamis-feminism-and-legacy-in-persian-poetry/
Papers by Iran 1400 Project
https://iran1400.org/content/parvin-etesamis-feminism-and-legacy-in-persian-poetry/
Persian Classical Music has flourished and evolved in the past hundred years. Unique and endemic to Iran, it is a high art form that has become a central aspect of Iranian national identity. In the Pahlavi era it was promoted through radio and television broadcasting as an important cultural element in nation building. Initially banned after the Islamic Revolution, it is now widely enjoyed throughout the country. It is mainly cultivated in urban centers, though Iran’s various regions have contributed to its development. While deeply rooted in tradition, Persian classical music is also dynamic and reflects innovative contributions of different schools of thought. This article seeks to elucidate some of the main musical activities and creations of Persian classical music and identify some of the individuals who developed it.
Additionally, CJ constructed schools, libraries, clinics, and baths. It also delivered medication and vaccinations, and provided inputs, credit, guidance, and assistance to farmers, herders, and artisans. In its libraries, in village mosques, and elsewhere, the organization disseminated books and films (some with revolutionary and religious content), distributed copies of the Quran and other Islamic texts, and organized clerical sermons, prayer groups, and study sessions.1 CJ undertook some of these projects and services in cooperation with the Ministries of Roads and Transportation, Energy, Agriculture, Rural Affairs, Education, Health, and Culture. At the same time, and as will be further described below, the organization negatively perceived and portrayed the ministries as counterrevolutionary and heretical remnants of theshah’s regime (ṭāghūtī), and competed against them for recognition, responsibilities, and resources from the revolutionary state.2 Despite this initial hostility to the formal government bureaucracy, CJ transitioned from a revolutionary organization to a government ministry in 1983.
Based on extensive fieldwork and original research in Iran, this article argues that CJ members and Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and other religiopolitical elites appropriated the Shah’s Literacy, Health, and Extension Corps (Sepāh-e Dānesh, Behdāsht va Tārvīj). In doing so, they attempted to validate the Islamic Republic and differentiate CJ by framing its mission as repairing the alleged destruction that the Shah had caused the provinces and villages. Compared to the Shah’s Corps, CJ possessed similar attributes, offered comparable services, and performed analogous activities. Rather than constituting a complete rupture from or clean break with the pre-revolutionary past, CJ exemplified the political and social continuities of revolutionary Iran. These continuities contrasted with the perceptions of CJ members and religiopolitical elites concerning the innovativeness of the organization. They sought to portray it as such in order to justify its existence.
To differentiate CJ from the Shah’s Corps and to bolster the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic, Khomeini blamed the Shah’s institutions and policies for exacerbating rural inequality and underdevelopment.3 Regardless of its accuracy, this critique of Pahlavi modernism resonated with CJ members, especially those on the left, and later applied to the Islamic Republic’s own moral economy. In addition to resembling the Shah’s Corps, CJ exhibited institutional continuity between pre-and post-revolutionary Iran by transitioning from a revolutionary organization to a government ministry in 1983 before merging with the Ministry of Agriculture in 2001. Some CJ members were opposed to their originally anti-bureaucratic, revolutionary organization contradictorily joining a bureaucracy that before the revolution had purportedly neglected the countryside under the Shah and that afterward competed against CJ under center-left technocratic politicians like Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan (1907-95).
The positive reception of the 1906 Iranian Constitution in China, which preceded the 1912 Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China by seven years, highlights the imagined global community of Asian constitutional states that existed in the minds of many intellectuals from Tehran to Shanghai. It also emphasizes the extent to which technological changes came to connect the world in new ways that transformed people’s political and personal identities. It gives us a fuller, more vibrant picture of how intellectuals across Asia conceived of the world and their place in it and highlights the deep connections between Iranian history and international history.
Centuries later, as Iranians grew outraged and humiliated by foreign intervention in their country, nationalistic feelings heightened. Nasir al-Din Shah (r. 1848-1896), inspired by the West, sought to cultivate a public image of a modern state to elevate the status of the monarchy, legitimize the state, and maintain loyalty from society. In an attempt to glorify the monarchy, he commissioned translations of Iranian and European histories. These translations caused Iranians to realize how prosperous Europe was in contrast to Iran, thus creating a feeling of backwardness. However, they provided the solution to Iranians’ newfound embarrassment with translations that portrayed ancient Iran as a period of grandeur and greatness. Additionally, the translations emphasized Iranians’ shared roots with Aryan ancestry, with which Iranians began to enthusiastically identify.
In response to this newfound feeling of backwardness, Iranians sought to identify the cause of their predicament. The Arab conquest presented a foreign “other” to scapegoat and Iranians used the Shah’s new translations as an opportunity to separate themselves from Arabs. . The translations evoked nationalistic sentiments in Iranians as they revered their glory days before the Arab conquest and as the Iranian elite began searching for solutions for the “salvation of Iran.”
Fired by a desire to revive Iran’s ancient greatness, Iranian elites first began to push for linguistic reform of the Persian language. Motivated by the effects of translation and alarmed by the increasing influence of imperial powers, they sought to rid communications of complicated language to close the gap between the speech of the elite and the speech of the common Iranian. This desire actualized with the development of the Constitutional Revolution.